Rosemont Unwraps Redevelopment Plan

Final plans were unveiled Friday for a $500 million redevelopment involving major office, hotel and civic projects in northwest suburban Rosemont.

Rosemont Mayor Donald Stephans and Gov. James Thompson announced the

``Build Rosemont`` redevelopment effort at a press conference in the village.

The officials said Rosemont will receive a $2.7 million grant by October that will be one of the first awarded out of the governor`s ``Build Illinois`` program.

The grant will be used to construct a 5-level, 4,458-car parking garage, which Stephans said will be crucial to the village`s redevelopment plan.

As reported by The Tribune in December, a major portion of the plan calls for replacing 80 acres of aging industrial buildings west of Des Plaines River Road and south of the Kennedy Expressway with new office, hotel and civic projects.

An enclosed, 7,000-foot-long ``skybridge,`` to be started this fall and completed in 1986, will link the new garage with two hotels and a theater also planned for the redevelopment district, Stephans said.

One of the hotels, the previously announced 305-room Hotel Sofitel at 5550 N. Des Plaines River Rd., is under construction and is scheduled to open in January, 1987.

Its builder is Fifield Development Corp. of Chicago, which also is constructing Columbia Centre, the first office building in the redevelopment district, at 5600 N. Des Plaines River Rd.

The second hotel, announced Friday, will be a 300-unit, all-suite property to be built at 5500 N. Des Plaines River Rd. by Walden Investment Corp. of Schaumburg for the Radisson Suites division of Radisson Hotel Corp. The hotel is to open in March, 1987.

The theater, to be called the Rosemont Performing Arts Theater, will be a 3,000-seat facility to be built in 1987.

Construction of the new garage will permit a 100,000-square-foot expansion of the 350,000-square-foot exposition center into an area now used for parking, Stephans said.

``Build Rosemont`` also incorporates private development elsewhere in the village.

Officials disclosed Friday that Marriott Corp. of Washington, D.C., will build a 350-unit Marriott Suites Hotel in the River Way office-hotel project at Higgins and River Roads. The hotel is expected to be started late this year and to open in early 1987.

Construction began earlier this year of another all-suite facility, a 300-unit property for the Embassy Suites division of Holiday Corp., which is to open next summer at 6501 N. Mannheim Rd. in the O`Hare International Center office-hotel complex.

Nine office developments are underway in Rosemont, Stephans said. These will boost the village`s office space from 1 million square feet now to 10 million square feet by 1990.

Additionally, a new fire station will open in the fall of 1986 next to the present River Road station on the CTA`s O`Hare rapid transit line, Stephans said. Construction will be funded by a $150,000 state grant.